AJ Styles has had a lot of success in WWE so far, and at the moment he’s the current WWE Champion. Leading up to his debut at the Royal Rumble, there was a lot of speculation regarding what he would and wouldn’t be able to do inside the ring.
Prior to Styles joining WWE, his finisher the Styles Clash was seen as a controversial move. Luckily Chris Jericho managed to convince Vince McMahon to unban the move, and the rest is history.
Styles recently spoke to Comicbook.com about the move, and he commented on the fact that former WWE Women’s Champion Michelle McCool has used it inside a WWE ring.
“Truth of the matter is, I’ve seen a lot of moves done outside of the WWE and then someone does them in the WWE and now automatically they invented it,” Styles said. “That was the move that they came … I’ve seen it. The joke has always been, if you do it on TV first you’re the one invented it. Michelle McCool apparently, or Crash Harley, I’ve seen him doing the Styles Clash so was it their move? But then again, if you didn’t watch WCW in 2001 then you didn’t see me do the Styles Clash then, so I’m just throwing that out there.”
The current WWE Champion also noted that when you work for certain companies you live in a bubble, so you might not even notice the fact that other wrestlers are using the same moves.
“Well, the thing is, is when you’re stuck in a bubble, you’re stuck in a bubble,” Styles said. “You don’t really notice too much going outside of it. There’s so much going in the WWE. A guy came up to me and says, “Man, I have no idea what you’ve done outside of here.” I totally understand because when I was in Japan I was in that bubble. When I was somewhere else I was in that bubble and it’s hard to focus on someone else or what’s going on somewhere else because you’re so consumed with what’s going on around you. I would get that.”
Even thought the Styles Clash isn’t necessarily, AJ’s main finisher nowadays, it still gets a huge reaction from the fans whenever AJ Styles uses it.
Styles is going to need the move in his arsenal at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, as he’s set to defend his WWE Championship against Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in a handicap match.
